"Made Himself Nothing"

(based on the devotions of Selwyn Hughes: “Every Day Light”)

Philippians 2:5-11

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Introduction: The other day I was shopping for a DVD player and I was looking at all of the different models. Of course they are different prices, from different companies. So I sought out someone from the store who knew something about the DVD players. My desire was to gain important information so that I could make an informed decision on which DVD player to buy. In essence, I was wanting some expert advice from someone who knew DVD players.

Throughout the Old Testament God established ‘prophets’ for the purpose of being able to inform His people about what was true, and right and good. God wanted His people to be able to make informed decisions about their life, and so He would speak to the prophets who would then speak to the people.

However, God ultimately knew that His prophets would not be sufficient, either for information or for saving His people from their sin. So God decided to take on flesh and dwell among us in Jesus Christ. God taking on human form in Jesus is known by the theological term “the incarnation of Christ.”

This doctrine, this truth of God is at the core of the Christian faith. So we are going to take the next three weeks to talk about it/ so that we not only understand it, but so that we can share this truth with others; this truth that sets Christianity apart from every other religion!!

I. God Comes to us- (Hebrews 1:1-14; Ephesians 2:8)

a. Unique- In every religion there is a great leader and teacher. In

Islam there is the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Zorastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster. Buddhism was founded by and based on the teachings of Siddhattha Gotama. In fact, I just read about Siddhattha Gotama. His parents tried to shield him from the suffering and death of the world. When he went off to school, his nannies would go ahead of him and even pick all the dead flowers. One day Gotama went out on his own and came across a dead body! He was so shaken by this that later in his life he started Buddhism for the purpose of trying to help people end their suffering.

However, no other faith claims that its great teacher was God incarnate. But this is exactly what Christianity claims. Not only does Christianity teach that God meets us where we are in need, but even more, He comes to us where we are and HE does the work. God is unique in that He understands our struggles deeply, since He experienced and witnessed these same struggles. When we feel guilt, we can know that Christ atoned for our sin, is able to forgive our sin, and remove our guilt. God comes to us!

Hebrews 1:1-3 tells us: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

b. Christ’s call is to all humanity- In these days God speaks to us

through His Son, Jesus Christ. He speaks to all people, of all races. He does not see barrier, class, or creed. His message to us is ‘Whosoever will, may come.’ There are many who believe that Christianity is narrow because it teaches that people can only get into heaven through Christ. That IS Jesus Christ’s teaching. That IS what makes Him unique. It IS through Christ, God in the flesh, that we can come to God and get into heaven.

Christ’s call is to all because Christ doesn’t want to see any perish. Jesus Christ is unique in His Person, His Mission, and His finished Work. As pastor of this church I am called to be the Shepherd of God’s people here at Community Presbyterian Church. When people stray in their faith, or they aren’t coming to church, I am concerned and reach out to them. My intent, in love, is to help them stay right with God and experience the power of worship and fellowship.

Jesus Christ cares about all humanity. When we stray away from God, God reaches out to us through His Spirit. Because of what Christ has done, as we feel this prompting of God’s Spirit on our hearts, we can again come to God through Christ. The apostle Paul tells us of this in Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” God’s grace comes to us to save us. Save us for salvation. Save us from our sin. Save us from our wrong choices. Save us from our struggles. This is the gift of God!!

II. Appeared in a Body- (1 Timothy 3:1-16)

a. Comparing our faith- Max Muller, a writer on religious issues,

once made an interesting statement when he said: “You do not know the worth of your Christian faith until you have compared it to others.” When we think about the fact that God has appeared in this world in the Person of His eternal Son, we begin to understand that our faith is not based on the word of a prophet, but the Word of the Son Himself! No other world faith even attempts to represent its great teacher as God incarnate. As God, Christ comes to us from the highest place. As God, Christ doesn’t come halfway, but all the way. Christ comes to this earth.

Story: There is a true story of a missionary in India who would regularly talk about Jesus Christ with Hindu’s, Buddhist’s and Muslim’s. As he would talk about Christ, and then hear them talk about their religions, he had a light of understanding come on in his head. Through his conversations with them he realized just how great God is, and how wonderful it was that he had discovered this faith in Christ. He said it like this: “All the old …modes of expression and accepted outlooks on life are challenged (when you talk to people of other faiths). (In these conversations) one begins to see where the relevant lies.” He talked about this teaching of the Incarnation to be the most significant. He talked about the ‘round table’ discussions he would have with those from other faiths as they each talked about the distinctiveness of their faith. The he said this: “Whenever I would talk about the truth of the Incarnation, the meeting would lapse into silence. Sometimes the silence would last for many minutes, only to be broken with the remark, ‘We have nothing in our faith that compares to that. Nothing!’”

b. In a body- In 1 Timothy 3:16 we are told by Paul, speaking to Timothy: “Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” Paul helps us to understand the mystery, the wonder, and the relevance of the Incarnation. God the Son appeared in the flesh; in a body. This is not just my word, or Paul’s word. There is evidence of this. It was vindicated by the Spirit. It has been preached among the nations. It has been believed by the world. And now Christ, who was in bodily form, has been taken up in glory to heaven.

This last point is very important as well, because if Christ was still on this earth, we would not have Him as our mediator in heaven. If Christ had not been raised from the dead, then we would worship a dead Lord, and a dead Lord is not very powerful. If Christ was not taken up in glory, then He would still have His human limitations. Christ did come in bodily form, but now He is heaven, reigning in all power and glory!

III. The Word Became Flesh- (John 1:1-18)

a. The Son is God- Sometimes this whole teaching can get confusing.

People believe that Jesus died for their sins, and that through faith in Jesus gives us forgiveness of sins, and the ability to come into the presence of God, and the blessing of salvation. But people struggle to understand that Jesus was fully God and fully human. Let me try and help you with this a little.

One of the most important verses in the Bible comes from John 1:14, which starts out, ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…’ But to really understand this verse, you have to understand the whole section of John 1:1-18. So we start with verse one: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Another reference to God the Son is ‘the Word.’ We see here the scripture telling us that ‘the Word was God.’ If you go through the Bible, you will see very clearly the Bible teaching us that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here is one of the verses that show us that the Son is God.

Verses 2-3 continues: “He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” God the Son (or in this passage known as ‘the Word’) was there in the beginning of all time. Being that He was there in the beginning, He, as God, was active in creation. Then from here we jump down to verse 14, which says: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

b. Division of religions- The Word, which is God the Son, took on

flesh and made His dwelling among us. God came to this earth in the flesh. God’s glory was revealed to us in the flesh. God’s grace was shared with us in the flesh. God’s truth was spoken to us in the flesh. Do you get the point? God came to us in flesh and dwelt among us.

This verse has been described as ‘The Great Divide,’ because no other religion can claim that the word they received from God became flesh. In all other religions the essential element is a word that became word—a philosophy, a moralistic system. Only in Christianity does God appear in human form.

When you are trying to share the Bible truths with people of other religions, there are many truths that are similar. Muslims, in the Qur’an, have something similar to the Sermon on the Mount. Hindus have in their sacred book something similar to ‘turn the other cheek.’ Buddhist teaching talks about being caring and sensitive to the needs of others. But no other religion has anything like the Incarnation! This is where Christianity is unique. And it is unique because it is THE TRUTH.

IV. Made Himself Nothing- (John 1:14; Philippians 2:5-11)

a. Radically different- The point here is that the Christian faith is not

just a little better than other faiths, but it is radically different! People often say that Christianity shouldn’t be thought of as a religion. Why? Because religion is mankind’s search for God. Christianity, however, is God’s search for man. There are many religions, but there is only one gospel. Religion is the word that became word; the gospel of Christ is the Word become flesh.

Commentator William Barclay, talking about the John 1:14 verse said: “This phrase explains why John wrote his gospel. John could not get over the fact that God had become man in the Person of His Son, and John sustained this thought throughout the whole of his writings.” Augustine, the great saint of the fourth and fifth centuries, talked about how in his pre-Christian days he had never read anything comparable to the phrase ‘And the Word became flesh.’

Illustration- “Excuse Me, Are You Jesus?” A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago . They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding... ALL BUT ONE !!! He paused, took a deep breath, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did. The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, 'Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?' She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, 'I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly.' As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, 'Mister.......' He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, 'Are you Jesus?'

b. God reveals Himself- Why would she think He is Jesus? Because

He was WITH her. He humbled himself and helped her with her predicament. That is what Jesus would do. Jesus took on flesh to be WITH us. He humbled Himself in doing this. Now it is not easy for us to understand what this means. The miracle of it alone is tremendous. God, holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, creator, and sustainer chooses to shed His holy clothing and take on flesh! Jesus leaves the confines of heaven for our sinful, ruthless world.

Paul says it to us like this in Philippians 2:6-8, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

One thing the ancient Greeks could never contemplate was that God could reveal Himself in bodily form. To the Greeks the body was a prison in which the soul was shackled; a tomb in which the spirit was confined. Plutarch, the wise old Greek, believed it was nothing short of blasphemy to expect God to involve Himself in the affairs of the world. Yet in the face of this, the highest thought of the New Testament world, the gospel, unfolded this amazing truth that the Son of God became the Son of Man so that humanity could become children of God. Could anything in heaven or earth be more wonderful than that? I don’t think so!!

Conclusion: Our challenge today, and the next two weeks, is to not only understand that the Son of God took on flesh and came to this earth, but to understand the implications for us. Even more, to know that Christianity is what is true. This whole truth of the Incarnation is what sets the Christian faith far above and beyond any other faith or religion. So let us take what we have learned today, and seek to share it with someone we know. Not with the attitude of superiority, but with the attitude of wanting to bless others with Christ. Jesus Christ dwelt among us so that we could truly know God. Let us seek to know God, and live for God, this day, and every day. Amen.